The people of St. Croix County, Wisconsin, understand they live in the Midwest. However, they have been eyewitnesses to the crumbling rule of law just across the river, in Minnesota’s premier city, and that has plagued them as though they were living someplace else.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, announced this week as the vice-presidential running mate for presumptive Democratic nominee Kamala Harris, is coming under fire for his handling – or failing to handle – the riots after George Floyd died while in the custody of Minneapolis police.
“I’m in my home in St. Paul, smelling the smoke, seeing the boarded-up windows wondering why is the governor not calling out the National Guard? What’s the delay here? In fact, during that rioting he waited three days, while the city burned, to send out the National Guard,” Moses Bratrud, director of strategy for the Minnesota Family Council, said on Washington Watch earlier this week.
“It was Tim Walz who ordered that there would be no pushback against the Antifa, Black Lives Matter rioters,” former U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann told AFN.
It wasn’t only Minnesotans who were impacted. So were people in one of the Midwest states Walz is expected to help bring in as part of the Democratic ticket.
“I grew up in the shadow of the Twin Cities (Minneapolis and St. Paul) in western Wisconsin. My district goes all the way over to the river that borders Minnesota,” Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin) said on American Family Radio Thursday. “Those people saw Minneapolis burning. They could see it from Hudson, Wisconsin, across the river. They could see it burning during the riots four years ago.”
It’s not only about the riots
The riots stand out, but they were part of a pattern of failed leadership that had impact across state lines.
Tiffany told show host Jenna Ellis the story of one man, released from the justice system in Minnesota, who shot and killed a sheriff’s deputy in St. Croix County. Jeremiah Johnson was convicted in Minnesota in 2015 on charges of kidnapping and third-degree sexual assault. He was on probation when Deputy Kaitie Leising asked him to take a field sobriety test in May 2023.
Johnson was “evasive,” television station WQOW reported, and after about eight minutes of conversation produced a gun and shot Leising, who died at the scene. Johnson fled into nearby woods and took his own life.
“A guy came out of the Twin Cities, and he got off on a weak sentence and went over and just cold-bloodedly shot a sheriff's deputy in St. Croix County. Those are the type of headlines people in Western Wisconsin see regularly about Minnesota,” Tiffany said.
“The same decline that has happened in Vice President Harris’ San Francisco has happened in Tim Walz’s Minneapolis,” the GOP lawmaker added.
Tiffany believes Harris’ selection of Walz has presented Republicans with an obvious campaign strategy – if Donald Trump will seize it.
“Those people in western Wisconsin are going to be crucial voters in this election. They know about Tim Walz. I think if this is played well by Republicans in Wisconsin, we may have won Wisconsin's 10 electoral votes with Harris' first, most consequential decision – picking Tim Walz.
Walz has come under fire for what his opponent, Trump running mate JD Vance, calls “stolen valor” in an earlier career comment that Vance, a Marine veteran, says did not accurately reflect Walz’ service with the Minnesota National Guard during the U.S.-Iraq war.
On the subject of gun rights, Walz told a group: “We can make sure we don’t reciprocal carry among states, and we can make sure that those weapons of war that I carried in war is the only place those weapons are at.” (Right: Image of Walz in National Guard)
Vance commented: "I wonder, Tim Walz, when were you ever in a war? What was this weapon that you carried into war, given that you abandoned your unit right before they went to Iraq?"
Vance’s interpretation of Walz’ service was backed up by Ret. Command Sgt. Maj. Thomas Behrends, a member of Walz’ battalion, in an appearance on Fox News Wednesday evening.
"It is stolen valor," said Behrends. "He still says he's a retired command sergeant major to this day -- and he's not."
Tiffany believes playing with the truth with come back to bite Walz. “It’s similar to being a draft dodger when you look back to the Vietnam era. That is something that is a very, very serious charge, and I think Walz is going to be answering for this all the way through the election,” Tiffany predicted.
Decline in a city but in education too
Christine Trooien, executive director of Minnesota Parents Alliance, in an appearance on Washington Watch Wednesday, said education in her state has plummeted under the Walz administration. She told show host Jody Hice the state’s struggling schools go way beyond their extended COVID closures – and cited the example that many of Minnesota’s graduating seniors have scored less than 50% in basic proficiency skills.
“We are grappling with the lowest test scores we have ever seen in our state history. Our students are not thriving. It was exacerbated by his COVID response, but this is something that we’ve been dealing with since 2018 when he was first elected and even prior to that. But under his administration we have seen double-digit decline across subjects like math, reading and science,” she explained.
Trooien said Walz’ progressive views are making their way into schools as well, citing a new strand of social studies called “Liberated Ethnic Studies.”
“That is nothing more than a very radical, critical, social justice curriculum. That is not what most parents want their children to be learning in our public schools,” she argued.
How Trump utilizes the contrast between Harris and himself remains to be seen. According to Tiffany, Wisconsin Republicans were at work highlighting differences this week.
“Those of us in Wisconsin, we just did a call via the Republican Party of Wisconsin with the chairman, with U.S. Sen. Ron Johnson and myself the other day. We laid out very clearly the stark choice that's here,” Tiffany said.
Kamala’s extra helping of crazy
Harris, who is routinely bypassing reporters, does appear to be putting herself before the public with a handful of events scheduled through the week. As messaging goes, the sitting vice president has made it clear that she’s not interested in balancing her liberal views. Her selection of Walz as a running mate has “doubled down on crazy,” Tiffany said.
“She had the opportunity to balance their ticket out and send a message to the American people. Well, she sent a message to the American people. She sent a message that said 'We're doubling down on crazy. What we've seen happen in my San Francisco' – this being Vice President Harris – 'we're going to show you. We’re going to get the guy who ruined Minneapolis,'” Tiffany said.
